Hundreds of people gathered at California Lutheran University’s Samuelson Chapel on Saturday to mourn Justin Meek, one of the 12 people slain in the Borderline Bar & Grill mass shooting.

Meek, who graduated from CLU this past May, was a promoter for the bar’s college night. An avid fan of country music, he was working at the Borderline the night of Nov. 7 when Ian David Long entered the bar and open fire, killing 12 people and injuring 23 before killing himself.

Before the memorial service for Meek, CLU President Chris Kimball spoke in honor of Meek and the role he served within the CLU community.

“Justin Meek was a leader who people loved to follow. He was a connector who brought people together, and he was a protector who took care of those people. And he died a hero protecting those he loved from this community,” Kimball said.

Kimball shared a brief anecdote to exemplify Meek’s prominence at the school.

“The other day, after Sgt. Ron Helus’ memorial here in town, I bumped into an alum from a few years ago. ... I asked her as we were making conversation: Did you know Justin?” Kimball said. “She stopped, looked at me, paused a second, and said, ‘Everyone knew Justin.’ And that’s the truth.”

Justin was born into a military family in Portsmouth, Virginia, on Aug. 31, 1995. His family moved all over the country as part of his parents’ role in the armed forces, although they eventually settled in Coronado for Justin to attend high school.

At CLU, Meek partook in many student activities: He was an active member of the men’s water polo team as well as the school’s club hockey team, Italian club and Republican club. He also founded the school’s line-dancing club and attended many line-dancing nights at the Borderline.

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Justin Meek's mother Laura Lynn Meek gets hugs at the Justin Meek memorial service at Samuelson Chapel at California Lutheran University. Justin Meek was one of the 12 people killed in the shooting on Nov. 7 at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Family members and friends hug at the memorial service for Justin Meek on Saturday at Samuelson Chapel at California Lutheran University. Meek was one of the 12 people killed in the Borderline Bar & Grill shooting in Thousand Oaks. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

A group of people walk into the memorial service for Justin Meek on Saturday at Samuelson Chapel at California Lutheran University. Meek was one of 12 people slain in the Borderline Bar & Grill shooting in Thousand Oaks. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Chris Kimball, president of California Lutheran University, walks back to Samuelson Chapel after talking to the media during Saturday's memorial service for Justin Meek, one of 12 people slain Nov. 7 at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

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In May, Meek graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a minor in music. He wanted to join the U.S. Coast Guard and had ambitions to become a U.S. marshal.

At the memorial service, guests approached the chapel wearing cowboy boots and 10-gallon hats, reflecting Meek’s love of country music. As they lined up outside the chapel to sign the guestbook and offer condolences to the family, many shared hugs with each other in solidarity. Meek’s water polo teammates were among those who attended the service. Many wore gray T-shirts that read “JUSTIN STRONG” in purple lettering.

The service started with songs and was rich with music. Meek himself was a classically trained singer who was a member of the university’s Kingsmen Quartet and the choir. Among the items and photographs assembled at the front of the chapel was a steel string guitar with a black hat placed on the headstock. Meek played guitar, with one photo showing him clad in a black cowboy hat while holding an acoustic guitar.

At his graduation ceremony, Meek sang the national anthem as part of the Kingsmen Quartet. He received a bachelor’s degree at the same time as his mother, Laura Lynn Meek. His mother, an Air Force veteran, had served as flagbearer and carried the U.S. flag into the event. Both mother and son picked up their scrolls together.

The family’s close bond was emphasized during the service, especially the lifelong connection between Justin and his younger sister, Victoria Rose Meek, who is currently a junior at CLU.

One speaker, Mike Diaz, president of the campus veterans club, said he’d been asked to speak by “Mama Meek.” Diaz shared a story about how Justin, when he was 2 years old, approached his mother, saying: “‘Mommy, I asked God for a baby sister.’” Justin attended all of his mother’s sonograms and helped prepare for his sister’s arrival home, Diaz told the congregation.

Although the siblings were three years apart, their mother would call them fraternal twins, Diaz said. When the brother and sister also told Diaz they were twins, he added, “I believed them.”

The Rev. Scott Maxwell-Doherty, the university pastor who delivered the sermon, thanked the family — and the community — for “shaping Justin.” He described a young man who knew “how to deliver fierce, focused and enduring compassion,” who became one of the university’s “poster children” and someone whose humor could be sassy and insightful, but always playful.

Maxwell-Doherty also spoke of receiving a call from a pastor and friend in Minnesota. A woman in the pastor’s congregation had housed Justin when the school choir toured the Midwest two years ago. The woman had “clutched her heart,” Maxwell-Doherty was told, when she learned the news.

Justin Meek’s father, Capt. Roger Meek, had recently retired from the Navy. Justin had posted a photograph showing him and his father on Instagram earlier this month, congratulating his father on retirement.

A singer-songwriter with Ventura County roots, Paige Peel, sang a song she wrote about the Borderline shooting accompanied by guitarist Joel Jacks. She has played the song, titled “Our Home,” at some other Borderline victims’ services.

The song concludes with the lyrics: “This is our front porch and our backyard/A small town with big hearts/On the borderline of heaven/where we never thought this would happen.”